Library filed under Impact on Birds

A party to the Article 10 review of the proposed Galloo Island commercial wind project has complained to the siting board that the Department of Environmental Conservation is trying to suppress information about a bald eagle nesting site on the island, including an attempt to slap a gag order on all participants in the proceeding.

The Irish Raptor Study Group has been granted permission to bring judicial review proceedings challenging a decision of An Bord Pleanála to grant planning permission for a 19-turbine wind farm located at Meenbog in South Eastern Donegal. ...They claimed that while the developer in its application did not identify the presence of breeding Hen Harrier on the wind farm site IRSG volunteers had identified two pairs of breeding Hen Harrier in the same area.

Clifford Schneider, a biologist and former Lake Ontario unit leader for the New York Department of Environmental Conservation, submitted this memo to the New York State siting board outlining the process he followed when informing the State of at least one active bald eagle nest within the proposed Galloo Island Wind project site. Until this letter, neither the State nor Apex, the project proponent, reported eagles in the area. Mr. Schneider raises concerns regarding the response to his report of eagles by the applicant, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Department of Environmental Conservation. An excerpt of his memo is provided below. The full memo can be accessed by clicking the links on this page.

This is the first Lake Erie wind turbine project that has been recommended for approval by the OPSB. They have placed some “conditions” on their approval of the project, but if those conditions are met with studies that lack transparency, or are built on flimsy science, or by cherry-picking numbers and portions of studies that push a favorable breeze on this wind farm, we all lose.

The Ohio Power Siting Board has recommended conditional approval of the $126 million Icebreaker six-turbine wind turbine project proposed by the Lake Erie Energy Development Corp. 8 to 10 miles northwest of downtown. But the staff has included more than 34 conditions. The six-turbine wind farm is expected to look similar to this offshore wind farm near Block Island in the Atlantic Ocean.

Consequently, federal wildlife officials are mulling a morbid question involving a large North Dakota wind farm: How many bald eagle deaths do they consider acceptable for a bird that is legally protected and hallowed as a national symbol?

If it's successful, the project will help solve one of wind energy's ongoing challenges: bird fatalities caused by turbines. A 2013 study notes that at least 140,000 birds are killed by wind turbines every year. ...Albertani noted that the true total has likely increased in the past five years, as the industry has grown.

One hundred years ago, Congress passed one of the earliest and most consequential conservation laws, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918. Its language was, and remains, clear and straightforward: Unless an individual has a valid hunting permit, “it shall be unlawful at any time, by any means, or in any manner” to “hunt, take, capture [or] kill” migratory birds.

Conservation groups have filed litigation asking the courts to overturn a memo issued by the U.S. Department of the Interior that relaxed the government's interpretation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) when reviewing possible violations of the Act. The complaint can be accessed by clicking the links on this page.

“These little songbirds migrate at night and they can’t see tall structures like this. When you’ve got a 400 foot pole with three massive blades sticking out it would be a gauntlet for these little migrating birds,” said Kim Kaufman of the Observatory.

The Scottish division of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) has hit out against a study published today on the risk to seabirds through collision with offshore wind turbines, calling the findings a “very optimistic interpretation of data”.

We cannot be sure how this snowy owl sustained its devastating injuries, but a likely culprit might be gleaned from the proximity of the field in which it was found to a major highway roaring with traffic, and a nearby wind farm bristling with turbines.

... biggest impact to birds in Central and Eastern Oregon would likely be from wind turbines, thanks to the presence of several large wind energy projects in Eastern Oregon. Miller, a member of the East Cascade Audubon Society, said wind turbines disproportionately harm raptors, including falcons and golden eagles, relative to other human-made threats such as cars and power lines.

Southern Arizona’s only wind-energy farm is under a federal criminal investigation because its turbines killed an endangered bat and a federally protected golden eagle, law enforcement officials say. ...if the company had chosen to seek permits in advance that would have allowed it to kill a certain number of the protected species.

Justyna Tomta’s article on the Skookumchuck Wind Energy Project (Dec. 16, 2017) states that “Questions on the effects the turbines would have on the marbled murrelet were also raised, leading to the change in plans.”

“Habitat degradation is always conceived of as clear cutting, or, you know, changing the environment in a physical way. But this is an acoustic degradation of the environment,” Guralnick said. “We think it is a real conservation concern.” ...“Animals are constantly surveying their environment and making decisions based on risk. And one thing noise does is it degrades this really important sensory channel,” he said.

The researchers found that all three species were more likely to enter areas the government has established for offshore wind development during migration than during the winter. The gannets, in particular, trafficked the wind development areas most extensively while heading to or from breeding grounds in eastern Canada or wintering spots as far south as the Gulf of Mexico.

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